Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Now I Know How My Mom Felt

My mother loves to embarrass me by telling the story of how, when I was in 4th grade, I would leave for school during the Winter under protest because she made me wear a heavy jacket that I absolutely hated. To spite her, once I got out of sight, I would take the jacket off and stuff it into my backpack. We lived only two blocks from my school, so my exposure to the cold was minimal. During a parent/teacher conference, my teacher lectured my mother about the need to provide her children with warm clothing. My mother was mortified and, to this day, she has never let me live it down. She always said that, if I had children, one would pay me back for the embarrassment I doled out to her that season. She was right. It happened last night.

My daughter came to me complaining that she had an eyelash in her eye. I examined it and couldn't see anything. I went to get some eye drops but found that we were out. So, we made a trip to the local Wal-Mart to get some for her. While we were there, I remembered that I needed a new belt. I picked one up along with the eye drops and headed to the check out lane with my daughter trailing behind me. While we were walking, I was fidgeting by snapping the belt in my hands and soon noticed people were looking at me weird. Were my pants falling down? Was my zipper open? Had I sliced my face open shaving?

I looked behind me to ask my daughter if she noticed anything off about me and soon realized the reason for the strange looks. My daughter had rubbed her eye so hard that she had given herself a bright pink shiner. As I snapped the belt in my hand, I understood the implication. Suddenly, I realized how my mom felt all those years ago. The second I got home, I called her up and apologized.